


give me a boost over heaven's gate

by sakaamotos



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakaamotos/pseuds/sakaamotos
Summary: Akira finds his future in a YouTube channel during college, Ryuji helps him, and along the way, they fall in love.-My piece for the Pegoryu Discord server's 2019 Secret Santa.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Sakamoto Ryuji, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 10
Kudos: 160





	give me a boost over heaven's gate

**Author's Note:**

> Yooooooo! So, my person's request for their secret santa was any type of AU and I remembered that at one point, I had jotted down some notes about a Youtube AU after binging a bunch of Bon Appetit videos. This is more of a college/youtube au, but I think it still fits my overall idea of what I was going for!
> 
> On the past relationship tag: Makoto and Akira dated prior to the events of the story and that relationship is mentioned in here, but it's through Akira's perspective and I can tell you that it's a very flawed perspective, but the bit that was supposed to explain that wasn't really working out all that well, so it got cut for the sake of my sanity. Maybe in a future ficlet, I'll suss that out better.
> 
> Title is from Heaven's Gate by Fall Out Boy, because I have a brand and I stick to it well. And as always, this has been edited by my dear friend Alien (tsbasasakura), who probably still has me in jail for angst crimes.
> 
> (Also, I thought my name for Akira's channel was super clever and adorable.)

It starts mostly because Akira is bored.

And a bored Akira is a dangerous Akira.

He's found that a business degree in its first year isn't all that challenging, and by 7pm most nights, he's done with his homework, and his tests and papers are too far out to make any headway on. His eyes rove the room and land on one thing:

The air fryer. 

It was a gag gift from Futaba to Sojiro last Christmas. But it's remained in the cafe, perched up high and gathering dust. Akira sees it though as inspiration. 

His first video is not an "Every Way to Cook" video, it's more of a "What You Should and Shouldn't Put In An Air Fryer". But it gets a surprising amount of traffic.

A few weeks later, he makes a video along similar lines, but this time, it's about hot pot. It gets a bit more traffic, a few questionable comments, and Akira finds that he's enjoying making videos. Editing gives his brain and hands something to do when he can't study for a second more.

As his first semester ends and the second begins, he makes the decision to leave his business major behind and switch to film. His parents find out almost immediately and decide to grill him into the dirt over it. He almost caves and switches back, but Futaba, in a brilliant moment, shows the videos to Sojiro. Every laugh that comes out of the usually gruff man feels like a victory to Akira's soul, and after he's done watching them, Sojiro claps Akira on the shoulder and tells him to keep up the good work.

It's all Akira needs to keep going.

Ryuji's involvement though, that's both a little more, and a little less, expected.

After one video, one that included almost 40 different foods, Akira felt sick to his stomach. He skips class the next day and turns his bed into a fortress of pillow and blankets and waits for the constant desire to vomit to pass, when Ryuji shows up to check on him.

“Bro, like, what the hell did you eat?” Akira finds himself chuckling as he rolls over to look at Ryuji.

“Everything.” Ryuji tilts his head at that and Akira tries not to scream, because he looks like an actual puppy and its adorable. Akira does sigh though and carefully sits up, motioning Ryuji to join him on the bed, while he grabs the old laptop that he’s had since high school, and boots up one of his videos.

He never really explained to everyone why he switched majors, just that he did. He had intended to tell them at that moment about the youtube videos, but there was something in the vague disappointment that came from Makoto at the announcement that made him think twice though and he simply left the conversation at that. But he knows Ryuji, even though most of the Thieves have drifted off and found their own things, Ryuji has remained as close to Akira as ever, so he doesn’t mind showing him this.

They’re barely a minute into the video before Ryuji is hitting the spacebar to pause it.

“Wait! That’s Leblanc. That…  _ you _ run this channel??” Akira nods, confused. “Bro, I’ve been binging these videos pretty much every night when I can’t sleep!” 

Akira can’t help it, he laughs.

“Seriously?” Ryuji nods and his head is going so fast that Akira worries it might pop off. “How did you not realize that it was Leblanc until now?”

“It’s usually like two in the morning, I’m just focusing on the food.” Akira laughs again and falls into Ryuji’s side. “Is this why you switched majors?” Akira doesn’t stop laughing, but Ryuji can feel him nodding his head. “That’s, shit, that’s actually pretty cool. If you ever need help with like, idk, eating all of this, let me know.” Akira manages to stop laughing and sit up straight to look at Ryuji’s face.

“Are you serious?” Ryuji hits the spacebar to restart the video and nods.

“Yeah man, I’m serious. You’ve been a lot happier since switching majors and if you need help sometimes, I don’t mind.”

Akira stops and blinks as Ryuji’s words start to register.

Did he seem so terribly unhappy before?

Ryuji leaves a few hours later, but not before wrangling a promise from Akira to call him for help when filming his next video. And even though he’s gone, his words still bounce around Akira’s head and make him think about how he was all through his first semester of college.

He didn’t think that he had been particularly  _ unhappy _ , but he had been a lot more stressed, and as a result of that stress, withdrawn. Akira can count on one hand the amount of times he physically saw Ryuji through the first semester, and they attend the same university, so that’s pretty sad in retrospect. Yeah, they talked via text damn near every day, but physically being with his best friend was always very different than text.

And you didn’t even have to ask which Akira prefered. 

-

The next few weeks after the reveal to Ryuji seem to fly by.

Akira gets three videos done, where he only expected two, and he has Ryuji’s help to thank there. Ryuji is incredibly eager in the kitchen and Akira thinks that this is the most fun he’s had in awhile. They trade off every 10 dishes or so and Ryuji even sticks around during the editing and voice over bits, keeping Akira’s spirits up, even when Akira gets frustrated after Premier freezes for the nth time.

Ryuji helps out with Akira’s video projects for his classes too, which Akira is more than grateful for. The projects get to be a little more goofy and Ryuji is a little more willing to be seen on camera beyond his hands or a blurry cryptid in the background.

Akira thinks that it feels like how it used to be when they were the Phantom Thieves.

Like he’s flying.

In return for all the help Ryuji is giving him though, Akira helps Ryuji study for his tests. Makoto had attempted to help Ryuji study through their first semester, but gave up in frustration when Ryuji wasn’t picking up things the way that she was teaching them. Akira remembers that particular conversation. Ryuji had called him, annoyed, and asked Akira if he was just too dumb to be in school.

_ ”You know, the longer I do this school thing, the more I feel like an idiot.” Akira was on a 15-minute break while on shift at the cafe, even though he knew that if he needed to, Sojiro would let him extend that to 30. Perks to be basically family, it seems. _

_ “You’re not an idiot. Makoto isn’t a teacher and you’ve never learned the way she wants to teach. She should know this by now.” Ryuji chuckles, but Akira can tell that there is no humor in it. “No, seriously, you aren’t  _ **_stupid_ ** _ , Ryuji. Stop being so hard on yourself.” Ryuji sighs and Akira wishes that he were at Leblanc so that he could hug him already. _

_ “You’ve got more faith in me than most people do, dude. I gotta go though, got work here in a few. Maybe we can get lunch this weekend?” Akira nods subconsciously. _

_ “Yeah, I don’t have anything that needs to be done right away, so lunch sounds great.” Ryuji promise to text Akira the details before hanging up. Once he’s gone, Akira spends a few more minutes staring at his phone, going back and forth between texting Makoto and telling her that she should apologize for being so hard on Ryuji, but he knows that Makoto would never admit to that and it would just devolve into a fight and Akira frankly doesn’t have time for that right now.  _

_ He sighs and pockets his phone and heads back into the cafe. _

Over the past few years, Akira has learned that Ryuji needs a physical element when it comes to studying. Flash cards have always been good and they turn it into a little game, which helps keep Ryuji engaged, but he knows that Makoto has almost no patience for this, thanks to past study sessions where she’s yelled at them for goofing off, when really, they  _ were _ studying. On days where Akira isn’t editing for the channel or for his class projects, they commandeer the back booth of the cafe and study and when Ryuji brings home a solid B+ on his next big test, he and Akira celebrate by taking the day off from anything related to class or Youtube and trek across Tokyo to their old ramen haunt.

“Gah! It’s been too long! We really shouldn’t go this long without the good shit again.” Ryuji jams his elbow at Akira to drive home the point and Akira just laughs, feeling so reckless and wild and free.

And that’s how the second semester goes, the first half of the week is dedicated to filming and editing, whether it’s for Akira’s classes or for the Youtube channel and the second half of the week is for studying. On Saturday, once they’re both free, they head out into the city to find food. Akira jokes about starting a food blog one weekend and Ryuji rolls his eyes at him and goes, “okay Akechi”.

Akira makes sure that all of Ryuji’s coffee for the week is bitter and decaffeinated for that. Ryuji apologizes on Friday with a box of tiny cakes from the bakery that opened in Yongen around the corner from the cafe in the year that Akira was gone.

Futaba teases him mercilessly for it for the next week.

Ann and Yusuke eventually drift back into their orbit as third semester rolls up on them. Ann decided to not pursue college and is working full-time as a model, while Yusuke is in school at a small, but highly prestigious art school, so his free time basically doesn’t exist. But they start to carve time out during the third semester for each other. Ann helps Ryuji study while Akira offers to let Yusuke stick around on Mondays and Tuesdays to sketch him while he works on film stuff.

But for however close Ann and Yusuke get to them, it seems Haru and Makoto drift further away. With Haru, Akira isn’t terribly surprised, she’s so busy between classes and trying to really help Okumura Foods run well, that Akira feels amazement whenever he sees her walk into Leblanc. Once, after Akira announced his major change, she stopped by. Akira was busy writing a script for one of his classes and barely looked up until the sound of something heavy hit the table.

_ “What the…? Haru?” Haru smiled down at him and gave a short nod. _

_ “Hello Akira, I guess this explains why you weren’t answering my texts.” Akira gives a sheepish smiles and starts digging around that papers to look for his phone. _

_ “Yeah, sorry, I put it on silent when I’m script-writing. I would never get anything done otherwise.” His hand finds his phone and pulls it out and he frowns when he sees the mass amount of notifications. “But, maybe I should stop doing that…” He shakes his head, the phone can wait. “So, um, what is this?” He gestures at the case that Haru has placed on the table in front of him. _

_ “Oh! This is a gift! After you told us you were switching majors, I thought you might like to have a good camera to help!” Akira’s eyes widen and he sits up, hands reaching for the case on instinct.  _

_ “Haru! You didn’t have to do this!” Haru giggles. _

_ “No, but I wanted to. You seemed upset after you told us and I didn’t want you to think that none of us supported you.” Akira smiles softly up at Haru. _

_ “Thank you Haru.” Akira flips the latches on the case and pops the lid open and his eyes almost fall out of his head. “Holy, Haru, this must have cost a fortune!” Haru shrugs, like the cost means nothing and to her, Akira thinks, it probably doesn’t. “I…” He swallows back some tears, because beyond Sojiro and Futaba’s encouragement and Ryuji's ever present help, he hasn’t really been feeling a lot of support from the people in his life, and this goes a long way to helping those feelings fuck off. “Thank you Haru, I mean that seriously.” Akira gets up and pulls her into a tight hug, which she returns with gusto. _

_ “Oh, of course Akira! You’ve done so much for everyone else, you should do something with your life that you  _ **_want_ ** _ to do! I’m just glad to help!” Akira smiles and squeezes her one more time before letting go. _

_ “Well, since you’re here, coffee?” Haru giggles again and gives another short nod. _

_ “Of course!” Akira takes a second to close the case before heading around to the counter. They spend a few hours together, sipping coffee and catching each other up on life before those lives come back and remind them that they have things that must be done and those things have due dates. One last hug and a promise from Haru that she’ll keep in touch via text and she leaves. _

_ Akira looks at the case on the table and heaves a deep sigh, glad to know that at least Haru is happy for him. _

Makoto has been a completely different story.

After another phone call from Ryuji complaining about Makoto giving him grief about his grades - a long week of filming hadn’t given either of them much time to crack a book and Akira felt bad about that when a pop quiz caught Ryuji by surprise on Monday - had led Akira to snapping a bit and calling Makoto and telling her to  _ lay off _ .

_ ”It was one bad quiz, Makoto! It happens!” Makoto sighs across the phone. _

_ “Except with Ryuji, it’s never just  _ **_one_ ** _ bad quiz. He’s blown off every study session I've offered him, his grades are probably in the toilet!” Akira pinched the bridge of his nose. _

_ “His grades are not  _ **_in the toilet_ ** _ , we study every week! We just got busy this past week with some stuff for one of my classes!” Makoto scoffed and Akira felt like screaming. _

_ “You mean you two get loud and obnoxious and call it studying.” It takes a lot of will for Akira to not punch the wall next to his head. _

_ “Not everyone learns by staring at a book until their eyes bleed! Ryuji and I make it fun so he actually learns something!” _

_ “Whatever, when he fails the semester, I don’t want him to come crying to me for help.” The call drops and Akira does punch the wall. _

Akira and Makoto’s friendship had never recovered after their romantic relationship ended during Akira’s third year. Like, they were friendly enough, sure, but the deep camaraderie that they had built up during their time as the Phantom Thieves had basically vanished and Akira felt like every conversation he had with Makoto these days felt more like a horrible root canal than a conversation between two old friends.

But as third semester got underway, Akira found that he had less and less time to think about the people who weren’t right in front of him. Haru sent texts and Akira kept her updated with photos and videos of the Leblanc shenanigans, while Makoto maintained total radio silence, even forgoing a shopping trip that Ann had planned with her, Haru, and Futaba months in advance.

Yusuke mused that it was just the nature of life, people come and go. Of course, out of all of them, Yusuke saw Haru the most, since she was personally acting as his patron while in school, so she probably never felt all to distant to him. But even when it came to Makoto, he had no answers there.

By the middle of third semester though, Akira lets it go, he had to. The channel was growing almost faster than he and Ryuji could keep up with it, not to mention their schoolwork seemed to be piling up at their second year was start to appear on the horizon. He sent Makoto one last text, inviting her over for coffee and for a chance to catch up.

The text went unanswered.

Akira moves on.

-

Second year punches Akira and Ryuji in the face from the start.

Akira’s advanced script-writing class was a nightmare from the get-go, after his professor used one his Youtube videos as an in-class example of “what not to do”. The laughter from Akira’s classmates as his professor tore the video’s script apart burned in his ears for days, and not for the first time, Akira laments that he no longer had the power to change hearts.

“Your professor is a dick. Doesn’t he have to get permission to use your shit in class like that?” Akira shrugs and shoves his lunch away; he’s over a week late on a new video for the channel, but his professor’s criticisms still sting, and he’s afraid that if he posts a new one, he’ll just show up to the next class with it up on the screen and ready to go for the roast.

“I don’t know. I mean, probably, yeah, but fuck if anyone is going to enforce that.” Akira drops his head into his arms and sighs. “School was a fucking mistake.” His voice is muffled, but Ryuji manages to hear him loud and clear and frowns at him.

“Bro, if he does that shit again, idk, like, report him to the effin’ Dean.” Ryuji runs a hand through Akira’s hair, hoping that it has some kind of calming effect on his best friend.

“Can’t I just glock him like I did God and call it a day?” Ryuji laughs, he doesn’t mean to, because he knows that Akira is having a tough time, but with how he says, Ryuji can’t help it.

“No, you can’t  _ glock _ your professor!” Akira looks up at Ryuji from his arms, and he’s got a dopey looking smile on his face that lets Ryuji know that Akira is starting to feel better, despite whatever else may be going on in that head of his. Ryuji doesn’t stop petting Akira’s hair though and well, when he looks back on it, he’s not entirely sure of how the events proceeded from there.

But what he does know is that he kisses Akira.

When his brain catches back up to him from the mini-vacation it took, Ryuji is very much attached to Akira at the mouth.

And Ryuji isn’t even mad about it.

But Akira, well, Akira freaks out.

Next thing Ryuji knows, is that Akira is shoving him back, and jumping up and away from the table, saying that he needs to go. 

Ryuji watches him go, paralyzed by fear, and the dawning horror that he probably just screwed up his friendship with the single most important person in his life.

Once Akira is out of sight, lost in the crowd of students milling around the quad, Ryuji covers his face with his hands and lets himself cry.

And that’s how Ann finds him an hour later.

-

They don’t talk about it.

Akira sends Ryuji a text a few days later and asks for some help with filming. Ryuji responds with an agreement, but they never talk about the kiss. They film three videos in quick succession, the conversation stays focused on what is being filmed, and every time Akira looks at Ryuji, Ryuji can see that Akira is really looking past him.

It tears at Ryuji.

And it makes Ryuji want to go back in time and shake Makoto for what she did to Akira.

The break-up was brutal on him, since he was all the way out in the country and Makoto didn’t have the decency to wait until he was back in Tokyo and do it face to face. He remembers Sojiro giving her the stink eye for weeks after that, and eventually, she stopped coming around to Leblanc altogether. When Akira finally did come back to Tokyo, Ryuji thought he looked hollow, like someone had carved out all the good bits and left behind the rot, and Ryuji hated that it was Makoto who did that to him.

Those few weeks they had between graduation and the start of classes, Ryuji basically clung to Akira’s side, and slowly but surely, the life came back to Akira’s eyes. He laughed at jokes again, sent the group chat between him, Ryuji, Futaba, and Yusuke more shitty memes, and just overall started to resemble the Akira that they had left in Inaba at the end of their second year.

And Ryuji had ruined all that in one stupid moment.

Ann tries to cheer him up.

“Ryuji, don’t take it personally. Makoto, well, she messed him up with the break-up. I think he would’ve reacted like that if had been anybody.”

It doesn’t work, but Ryuji appreciates that she tries.

Ryuji starts to skip study days. He can only take so much uncomfortable silence, and he’d rather his grades suffer than be forced to sit around and stew in his heartbreak. But every Sunday, like clockwork, Akira sends him a text and asks for help filming during the week.

And like a fool, Ryuji never tells him no.

It goes on like this for a month, before Akira finally breaks.

“Why?” Ryuji is at the bar, chopping an onion, because Akira has decided that he wants to see all the ways he can cook an onion, and for a second, he’s not sure if Akira has actually spoken to him, or if he’s just finally losing his mind. He decides to go with the former option, while assuming the latter.

“Why what?” He turns his head to look at Akira, and the intensity in Akira’s eyes scares him a bit.

“Why did you kiss me?” Ryuji lets out a shuddering breath.

What a fucking question.

But the answer is a simple one.

“Because I like you.” Akira looks away from him and Ryuji realizes that Akira is afraid.

“Do you know why Makoto broke up with me?” Ryuji shakes his head, even though he knows Akira can’t really see him do it. “I told her I was bi.”

It takes Ryuji a second to process that information and when he does, it makes him see red.

“I, wait, what? You told her you were bi so she dumped you? That is just, so goddamn shitty, holy effin’ hell!” Akira smiles sadly.

“Yeah, well, it fucked up whatever confidence I did have after that.” Akira looks down at the bar and digs his thumbnail into it. “I trusted her and I loved her, and she just...did that.”

"Did Boss know why?" Akira finally looks at him, confused by the change in topic. "I mean, you weren't here to see it, but he really came down on her hard after the break up." Another sad smile from Akira.

"Yeah, I, I called him after I was done talking to Makoto. Sort of broke down crying to him on the phone. And you know that he's always been too ready to throw down for Futaba and I." Ryuji puts down the knife in his hand and starts to creep closer to Akira.

"Well, he's basically your dad, so I'm not surprised." That makes Akira laugh.

"God, yeah. I came to Tokyo on probation, expecting a jailer, and all I got was an actually decent dad, a little sister, and a group of thieves." Ryuji laughs at that too, but the chuckles don't last long as Ryuji makes it to the end of the bar, and Akira finally looks at him again. "How long have you liked me?" Ryuji knows he could lie here, that maybe he should lie here, but this is Akira, his best friend, and he thinks that enough people have lied to him already in this life.

And about this, Ryuji doesn't think he could do it.

His feelings have always been shockingly honest.

"Since high school." Akira makes a noise that sounds like he's being strangled.

"Ryuji, that, it, it's been  _ years _ ." Ryuji gives a single nod and looks away. "You, all this time, and you never  _ said anything _ ." Ryuji sighs.

"Akira, think about high school for a whole damn second and remember that from the start, you were so goddamn intimidating." Akira gives a confused look and Ryuji sighs again. "I mean, you were this new kid who on the surface, just swaggered in and basically solved our biggest damned problem at Shujin."

"You were that intimidated by me?" Akira sounds hurt.

"In awe. You...you awoke to Arsene, to save me. Before that…" Ryuji has to look away from Akira. "Before that, no one would have ever considered sticking their neck out for me." A hand appears on his shoulder and it makes the tension in Ryuji's body drain from him.

"I- I'm sorry, Ryuji." Ryuji shakes his head.

"Ain't your fault, was just how things were." The hands starts to rub at his shoulder. "And by the time I got the nerves up to ask you out, you and Makoto were already up to something and well, I didn't want to ruin that for you." Another sigh. "Kind of wish I had." Akira laughs and that gets Ryuji to smile.

"You know, I used to have the worst crush on you. When Ann and I hung out, a lot of it was just me being dramatic about how cute you were." Ryuji looks at Akira, clearly confused. "In high school, I thought you were straight. So, I would lament to Ann and then bury my big, gay feelings in a hole out back. But some of the shit you said to me while we were hanging out made that hard as hell." During his little monologue, Akira moves around the bar and presses himself to Ryuji's side, all but forcing Ryuji to wrap an arm around him.

Ryuji both loves and hates how right it feels.

"I, yeah, okay, we were both idiots." He feels, more than hears, Akira answering chuckle.

"Ryuji, I once told Ann that you reminded me of the  _ sun _ ." Ryuji guffaws.

"Oh my god, how did she not kill you, like, on the spot for that!?" Akira's chuckles turn into full on snickering laughs.

"It was a near thing, I promise you. She definitely smacked me and told me to stop being such a useless bi." They stand there for a minute, lost in the laughter over high school Akira's seemingly hopeless crush. Eventually though, they calm down, though they don't physically break apart and Ryuji is ok with that. 

He doesn't really want to let go of Akira, if he's being honest.

But suddenly, there's a hand on his face, and it's being turned until he's face to face with Akira. He starts to open his mouth to ask Akira what's up, but he's stopped by Akira leaning forward and kissing him.

And God, if that isn't everything Ryuji has ever wanted. 

It's different than their kiss in the quad.

It's softer, it's more.

Ryuji feels his eyes slide shut as his whole body turns so he can get his hands on Akira properly. He turns his head just a bit, searching out a proper angle, and he knows he's found it when Akira whines into the kiss, and the hand that's on his shoulder digs in. Ryuji's hands find his waist with ease and pull him even closer.

This is truly everything Ryuji has ever wanted.

They stand like that for several minutes trading kisses until their lungs decide that air is more important and they're forced to break apart. 

"Ryuji," Akira is painting pretty steadily, and Ryuji is trying his best to not imagine those sounds a different sort of setting; one that involves a little less clothing. "I want to be your boyfriend."

Ryuji freezes.

His brain bluescreens as the words Akira has just said, register.

Ryuji.exe has stopped. 

"Wait, whoa, hold on! You wanna date me?" Akira nods, but Ryuji can see that his confidence in what he said is already slipping.

Ryuji considers kicking himself.

"Wait, hold on, I'm dumb, let me start over. The answer is yes, I will absolutely be your boyfriend." Akira's mouth breaks out into a grin. "You just took me by surprise." Akira chuckles.

"Maybe one could say that that was your  _ last surprise _ ." Ryuji groans. 

"Akira, no, you're terrible." Akira laughs.

"Yeah, but now I'm yours." Ryuji moves in for another kiss to shut him up.

In the morning, Sojiro enters the cafe and finds the pair of them asleep in the back booth, Akira draped over Ryuji like a human blanket. He also finds that they never finished whatever they were filming last night, and there are just piles of onion all over the counter.

Sojiro sighs.

But the look on their faces while their asleep is probably the most peace he's seen in a long while on either of them, so he doesn't mind cleaning up all that much.

They've earned a bit of peace.

-

The transition from best friend to boyfriends is a surprisingly easy one.

When they wake up the following morning, Sojiro greets them with coffee and curry.

"Glad to see you two figured out whatever the hell was going on there." They blink stupidly at him for a second and Akira asks why he’s in the attic, to which Sojiro responds, “You fell asleep in a booth in the cafe.” They look around them.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Now, here’s something to eat, don’t you both have class today?” Akira and Ryuji look at each other as the realization that Sojiro is right settles in.

“Shit!”

“Fuck!”

“That’s what I thought.” Akira and Ryuji untangle themselves from each other, but not before Akira presses a quick kiss to Ryuji’s cheek, making him turn bright red.

“In front of Boss!? Really??” They aren’t paying attention to him, but Sojiro’s shoulders are shaking with laughter.

“It’s not like he minds!”

“He’s basically your dad, that’s weird!”

“Hey, look at it this way, we can skip the meeting the parents step!”

“Akira!”

Sojiro takes up his post behind the counter, still laughing at the pair in the booth, as they settle down and tuck into their food and drink. Once they’re done, Akira presses another kiss to Ryuji’s cheek —just to be a little shit— and darts up the stairs to the attic, while Ryuji yells after him that it’s still weird to kiss in front of Boss.

“You know, I’m not grossed out, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Ryuji looks at Sojiro and tilts his head in confusion, and in that moment, Sojiro understands why everyone jokes that Ryuji is basically a puppy. “About two guys together. I’ve seen a lot of things in my time. You two are pretty tame on that list.”

“Oh.” Ryuji feels like the world has shifted just a little bit in a way that he didn’t expect, but altogether, is not displeased with. “I mean, I didn’t think you would be freaked out, since he told you about the whole being Bi thing. It’s more like, you’re basically his dad. Kissing in front of parents feels weird.”

“Kid, aren’t you almost 20?” Ryuji shrugs.

“Doesn’t make it less weird!” Sojiro chuckles and shakes his head.

In truth, Sojiro’s happy that these two finally ended up together. He wasn’t blind back then, and he saw the way that they looked at each other when one of them wasn’t looking. He’d almost smacked them upside the head himself a few times. And when Akira came home one day and told him that he was dating someone, but that someone wasn’t Ryuji, well, Sojiro was fairly confused.

“Hey,” Sojiro starts, reclaiming Ryuji attention from where it drifted back towards the stairs. “I don’t have to tell you what happens to you if you ever hurt him.” Ryuji shakes his head, his eyes wide as he catches Sojiro’s meaning. “Alright, as long as we understand each other. He may not be my kid by law, but well, that’s my kid. And you and I both know he’s already been through enough.”

“I know Boss. You don’t have to worry.” Sojiro chuckles again.

“All you kids do  _ is _ worry me, but thanks.”

Anything else Sojiro or Ryuji may have said is cut off by Akira returning downstairs, looking oddly refreshed for someone who hasn’t showered since yesterday. Ryuji shimmies out of the booth and joins him by the bar, dropping off their plates and mugs.

“Alright, we’re off. See you tonight, Dad!” Sojiro sputters, and Akira runs out of the cafe, cackling, before Sojiro can recover and yell after him. Ryuji is hot on heels, laughing right along with him. Outside, they fall into each other’s arms, still laughing, unbothered by the looks that some of the early morning locals are giving them. They can hear Sojiro yell Akira’s name from the cafe, and the sound of his phone going off in his pocket is probably Futaba yelling at him via text.

But as far as mornings go, it’s the best either of them have had in a long time.

Akira takes a second to kiss Ryuji again, this time on the lips, and then he’s pulling him towards the train station.

“Come on, we’re actually going to be late at this point.”

Yeah, Ryuji thinks, life probably doesn’t get any better than this.

-

Ryuji isn’t really sure where the time goes from there.

One day, he looks up from a textbook thick enough to be a weapon and he realizes that he’s about to take his last ever exam.

It feels, well, it feels all too surreal.

Especially when he thinks about how as of last week, he and Akira had officially signed the papers on their own apartment.

They were all grown up.

But then, Akira swears from over by the bar, breaking Ryuji from his thoughts, and making him realize that they were maybe only grown up on paper.

“You ok there babe?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. This camera is about to not be though.” Ryuji snorts.

All of Akira’s finals were actually just big, semester-long projects that he’s had done for a good week now, so in essence, his education  _ is _ over, and as a result, he’s thrown himself into filming enough videos to cover the channel for a good month or so while they move into their place. His current project is an announcement video, as well as a face reveal, since the only thing anyone has seen of them since this whole thing started, was their hands.

“Why aren’t you using the one Haru got you? The new one?” Akira looks up from the tripod that he’s been fighting for the past twenty minutes.

“Doesn’t fit the tripod, and I’m not running to Akihabara right now.” Ryuji nods and turns back to his book, only to be distracted again from another round of swearing from Akira. “God-forsaken piece of shit! Tighten already!”

“Babe, I think the tripod is calling it quits.” Akira huffs out an annoyed sigh. “Also, that one hasn’t worked right ever since Mona accidentally knocked it over last year.” That was the incident that got Mona banned from the cafe on nights that they were filming, since in the same go, he broke the camera that Haru had bought Akira when he first switched majors. It was in truth an accident, but it was an expensive one in the end.

“Yeah, I know, I just, I hate the camera shop.” Akira works to remove the camera from the tripod, before dropping down in the booth beside Ryuji. “Guy who owns the place found out that I make Youtube videos, and he keeps trying to get me to give him a shoutout. He also keeps trying to get my number, and not for like, any sort of discount club.” Ryuji wrinkles his nose and considers that maybe he should start making the runs to the camera shop instead.

“You don’t have any other tripods upstairs?” Akira shakes his head.

“Nope, took them to the apartment to film over there yesterday.” He sighs. “I’m so bored, all this waiting for school to be done is killing me.”

“You could always help me study.” Akira looks at Ryuji’s textbook and makes a face that could curdle milk. “You could also edit, or is all that at the apartment too?”

“No, that’s upstairs, I just don’t want to bother you by dragging it all down here.” Ryuji reaches his hand up to run it through Akira’s hair.

“Akira, it’s fine. Besides, once graduation happens, we’re gonna be busy moving, so this is probably your best chance to get some editing done.” Akira nods, but doesn’t move right away, too content to just soak up the affection that Ryuji is giving him. “God, we all get older, but you remain a cat.” Akira chuckles.

“I’m your favorite cat.”

“You’re my only cat, since Mona doesn’t count. Now go get the laptop and get some work done, I want to be done studying before dinner.” Akira sighs and tosses out a very annoyed “fiiiiiine”, but he gets up and heads up to the attic to grab the, frankly, way too old laptop. Ryuji takes a quick second to add laptop to his list on his phone, of things to replace when they move and then settles back into studying just as Akira is coming back downstairs.

And they work like that for a while, or at least until Sojiro comes back and tells them to take a break and eat something.

“See you gave up on filming today.” Akira nods as he slips past Boss and into the kitchen to root around for something to eat.

“Yeah, tripod is trash, so, decided to edit instead.” Sojiro nods and then points to a pot in the fridge for Akira to grab out.

“Gonna feel weird not having you in the cafe like this anymore.” Akira smiles as he comes out of the fridge with the pot.

“Yeah, but don’t worry, we’ll still trek across the city for the best coffee and curry ever.” Sojiro barks out a laugh at that.

“Just the coffee and curry, you menace?” Akira gives his well-known Joker smirk at that.

“I guess the family isn’t too bad either.” Sojiro reaches out and messes up Akira’s already messy hair even more.

“Not too bad, you know what, for that? You can heat up that pot all on your own.” Akira laughs and nods.

“You know what, absolutely valid.” Akira turns towards the stove and place the pot down on it, while Ryuji climbs up onto a barstool just out of sight and makes a motion for Boss’s attention.

“Tomorrow.” He mouths at him and Sojiro nods.

As he shifts on the barstool, a lump against his leg makes itself known, and all of Ryuji’s nerves come back at once.

Because tomorrow, he’s going to ask Akira Kurusu to marry him.

Sojiro reaches out and pats him on the shoulder, and mouths back to him, “you’ve got this”, and honestly, it helps settle him. Sojiro has become the father figure that Ryuji desperately needed in his life over these past several years, well before he and Akira were even dating, but even after, he never withdrew that support from Ryuji.

It’s probably one of the big reasons he’s made it as far as he has.

But he doesn’t get to dwell on it long, because Akira is very quickly joining them with plates of curry and demands for coffee that could rival Futaba, and Ryuji decides that for tonight, he can let his worries go and just enjoy a nice meal with this part of his family, before everything changes on them once again.

-

The next morning, Ryuji wakes up, and he can feel the weight of what he is about to do.

Akira is already up, he’s sitting at the desk in just pj pants, and grumbling at the laptop, while sipping on what is probably his second mug of coffee already. Ryuji smiles at the sight and thinks that he is definitely okay with waking up to this for the rest of his life.

“Morning.” Akira looks at him from over his shoulder and smiles back at him.

"Morning, sleep well?” Ryuji nods.

“Slept with you, so, yeah, slept pretty well indeed.” Akira blushes bright red, all the way to his ears, and turns back to the laptop, making Ryuji laugh.

“It’s too early for you to be that smooth!” Ryuji laughs harder at that, but gets out of bed and presses a kiss to Akira’s cheek, which does nothing to solve his blush.

“Yeah, but you love me anyway.” Another kiss, this one more on the corner of Akira’s mouth. “So, which coffee is this? Two or three?” Akira shakes his head and holds up a single finger.

“Just barely got up before you. First one of the day.” Ryuji mumbles something that sounds like “gotcha” and then buries his face into Akira’s neck. Akira’s breath hitches, and then he relaxes as he realizes that Ryuji doesn’t have any dirty intentions this early in the day, he just wants to snuggle. 

It’s honestly Akira’s favorite thing about mornings like this.

They stay like that for probably close to an hour. Akira doesn’t really get any work done, but that’s ok, he has  _ time _ and the stuff he’s editing is really just some added bonus content that he thinks the subscribers might like. He just likes to spend the early mornings close to Ryuji, and he’s glad that his boyfriend is so willing to indulge him in that. Ryuji starts to shuffle from behind him, before telling him that he’ll be right back, and getting up.

Akira thinks that he probably just needs to go to the bathroom.

But when the sound of feet on the steps doesn’t reach his ears, he turns to look and instead, sees Ryuji kneeling on one knee next to him, a ring box open in his hands.

Akira can’t help it.

The tears start to come.

“You know, I had a plan, a good one. Was goin’ to get this all on film and everything, but God, Akira, this right here, this is more perfect than I could imagine.” Akira covers his mouth and tries his best to not lose it as Ryuji speaks. “I’ve been in love with you for so long, probably longer than I realize, but long enough to know that this right here is all I need in life. You and me, and mornings like this, and evenings of us laughing at whatever the hell we create in the kitchen, and all the moments in between, even the ones where you’re cussin’ out the tripod.” Akira laughs, and it’s so beautiful to see that Ryuji’s heart actually aches from joy. “And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give you my last name in return.” Akira inhales deeply as those words hit him. “Akira Kurusu, would you marry me?” Akira nods and croaks out a yes, right before he launches himself from the chair and into Ryuji’s arms, who catches him and holds him tight to his chest.

Somehow, in the next few moments, Ryuji manages to be smoother than he’s ever been, and gets the ring on Akira’s finger without really letting go of him to do so. And then Akira’s kissing him, and it’s long and deep and slow and it’s perfect.

Everything is perfect.

And they can only go up from here.

-

A few weeks later, after graduation comes and goes, and boxes make their way from a cafe attic to an apartment in the very heart of downtown Tokyo, a video goes up on a Youtube channel called Kaitou’s Kitchen. Its title is nothing explosive, nothing that will shake the foundations of the universe. 

It’s nothing more than an announcement video.

But for the almost one  _ million _ fans of the channel, it’s an absolute bombshell.

It starts in a location that is unfamiliar from the location of every video before it, a kitchen that is almost blindingly white, instead of somewhere a little more dark and homey. And it’s being filmed an angle that is unfamiliar as well. It’s not focused on the counter or on hands, but instead, on a person with dark hair and glasses standing behind the counter, grinning like a fool for all the world to see.

“Well,” He starts. “I did promise you that once I was done with school, you would get a face reveal.” 

Off-camera, there is laughter, and someone who says, “Well, it’s a pretty good face, so…” which makes the person on camera laugh and look at whoever is speaking just out of view. 

“Yeah, it’s a face so good and pretty, you put a ring on it.” That leads to more laughter and the person on-camera smiles and it’s a little softer than his earlier grin. “Anyway! My name is Akira Kurusu, and this!” Akira steps to the side and puts his hand out. “Is my very mysterious other set of hands, my fiancé, Ryuji Sakamoto!” From the right side of the screen, another man, this one with spikey, bottle-dyed blond hair, appears. He joins Akira behind the counter and flashes a megawatt smile at the camera, probably giving several fans in the comments a whole new crush that they will be lamenting, since he’s already a very taken man. “Yes, the mystery of the second set of hands is no more, but that’s okay, because a new mystery is beginning in the form of, ‘what is our upload schedule going to become now that we are no longer slaves to the education system?’” Ryuji laughs and nudges Akira a little with his body, and Akira nudges him back.

From there, Akira launches into a concise, but still well-detailed explanation of what to expect from the channel in the coming months, mentioning everything from longform cooking videos to dumb vlog-like stuff if there’s enough interest.

In the comments though, fans note that during this part, Ryuji stopped focusing on the camera and started to just watch Akira instead, that megawatt smile softening as he watches Akira toss his arms about like a perfect showman. The comments call him a man in love.

And at some point, they note that Akira looks back.

But what the comments can’t tell, is that the moment their eyes met, they both finally found a name to put to the feeling they had when they looked at each other.

Home.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter and Tumblr @ sakaamotos


End file.
